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No one who has read Terry Pratchett will be surprised that he has deep insight into human nature. His books are full of explorations of what motivates humans a
by josephorjoe 7y ago
No one who has read Terry Pratchett will be surprised that he has deep insight into human nature.
His books are full of explorations of what motivates humans and how humans misunderstand each other. They are also frequently hilarious.
Bill Gates quote seems to reveal an expectation that humans would respect authority and be guided by it in their decision making -- which shows a shallow understanding of human nature.
The quote also anticipates that information distribution would flow through personal and professional connections and interests rather than being organized in a way to generate the most ad revenue possible.
- sbmassey 7y agoThe Pratchett's I have read seem to be full of basic human archetypes, riffed off for comedic effect, rather than anything approximating how real people think. He's no Shakespear/James Joyce/Henry James.
- ptrott2017 7y agoI was not a fan until I recently re-read all his work - but I dont think he ever would have claimed to be a shakespeare or a Henry James. I would say a more apt comparitive group would probably be Rabelais, Swift,Verne, Vonnegut, Voltaire, Wells, Wilde and Woodehouse - all of which he certainly is an equal writer to and his overall body of work sits well with.